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Original name: Jia ting jian shi
English name: Brief History of a Family
Year: 2024
Run time: 99 minutes
Language: Mandarin
Type (Colour/ Black & white): Colour
Country: China, France, Denmark, Qatar
Director: Lin Jianjie
Producer: Lou Ying, Zheng Yue, Wang Yiwen
Cast: Zu Feng, Guo Keyu, Sun Xilun,Lin Muran
Screenplay: Lin Jianjie
Cinematographer: Zhang Jiahao
Editor: Per K. Kirkegaard
Sound Designer: Margot Testemale, Jacques Pedersen, Fanny Weinzaepflen
Music Composer: Toke Brorson Odin
Production Designer: Xu Yao
Production Company: First Light Films
World Sales: Films Boutique
After graduating with a BA in bioinformatics, Lin Janjie turned to filmmaking and studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. His short films A Visit (2015) and Gu (2017) screened successfully at international film festivals. Brief History of a Family is his debut feature film.
After an incident at their high school, the outgoing Wei, only son of a well-off Chinese family, and Shuo, his quiet but perceptive classmate, become closer. A mysterious energy seems to connect the two, drawing them into each other’s lives. Wei soon introduces his new friend to his father, a cell biologist, and his mother, a former flight attendant. Learning that Shuo comes from a troubled background, Wei’s parents encourage this boy with an enigmatic charm to spend more time in their home. As Shuo integrates himself more and more into the family, he gradually discovers that their comfortable existence is shadowed by unspoken secrets, unmet expectations and suppressed emotions. Then a tragic event causes old wounds and current fears to come to light.
